Bad Knees and ankles - How can I put on more mass on my legs?

[viperam17]

I've had numerous injuries to my knees and ankles. Nothing too serious, but alot of hyperentensions, twisted knees and rolled ankles from playing sports. My right knee gives out every so often and I prefer not to have surgery. Does anyone have recommendations for adding muscle to my legs?

[jgreystoke]

Hi viperam.

First off, I love the iron game. But I am no expert. You ought to get your knees and ankles looked at before embarking on anything too strenuous. There are any number of professionals who might be able to help with these issues.

Many injuries, and inappropriate stretching, result in unstable joints like your knee. My knee issues were caused by machines that were out of spec for my structure. I still can't pause anywhere near parallel in any exercise involving leg flexion. Any time I tried convertional deads or squats, knee pain stalled all progress. Also have shoulder issues.

So I built up most of my size and strength with stiff leg deads and almost nothing else! You should be able to do these, adding a little weight every week and building up to an impressive poundage over the next couple of years.

Of course this is imbalanced leg, hip and back training. But it is miles ahead of the usual leg extension/leg curl nonsense. It is a whole body exercise, like all deads, hitting your shoulders, traps and forearms hard. It even gets your biceps, tho' most people won't believe this.

It may be inferior to the conventional dead or squat, but is is superior to almost anything else.


Amazingly, you may be able to do squats, without pain.......if they are ass to the grass! It turns out that the very strong pull of the hams in such full squats balances the pull of the quads. This braces the knee joint with very powerful support from both front and back.

The combination of sld and atg squats is almost perfect for leg size and power.

I discovered this for myself this year. My legs have started growing again. Of course, I started with lots of free squats, and then the empty bar, just to grease the groove.

Hope this gives you some ideas for building up leg power. Best of luck.

[viperam17]

Thanks jgreystroke!
I never thought about doing Dead lifts. I'll give a go at it.

[namtrag]

Not sure if this would help legs, but just thinking out loud, so to speak...maybe doing farmer walks would add mass to legs.

[viperam17]

Hi Namtrag,
How do you do Farmer walks?

[JHart666]

Farmer walks are when you hold heavy dumbbells and walk, they're great for grip. I have fairly bad knees and ankles as well, I caught my entire life for baseball, and my knees have never felt better or my ankles than when doing squats, if you can push past the pain or do light enough weight it doesn't bother you I would try doing them.

[lukamar]

I've found that ATG Hacks don't hurt my knees if I keep the weight on the low side, but they hurt like heck a couple of days later. I also have found recently that I can lift heavier, a lot heavier, and was using my knees as an excuse. Just a thought on that. If you find the magic bullet please let me know.

[GoOrange]

I don't think there's a magic answer. Different things are going to work for different people depending on the particular state of their knees and ankles.

I think flexibility and mobility training are very important (after a workout, not before). Eric Cressey has some great articles over at T-nation. I think one article was called "bulletproof knees" if you use their search feature.

One thing I would avoid is the Smith machine. The fixed plane of motion on the bar can cause some people problems, forcing their joints into following odd paths of motion. Stick with a regular squat rack/power rack.

When I was doing deadlifts, lunges and step ups, my knees started bothering me. I switched my routine and started doing a lot more squats, going deeper and deeper, and now my knees feel a lot better. The important thing is to find what combination of exercises works best for you.

Here are some of my favorites:
Back squats
Front squats (these are great, even without a lot of weight)
Overhead squats (fantastic, very tough)
Goblet squats (a good development exercise to increase mobility)

Deadlifts
Romanian deadlifts (still work hamstrings and gluts, spares the knees)

Lunges
Walking lunges
Reverse lunges
Side lunges
Bulgarian split squats (one of the best single leg exercises IMO)
Step ups

Machine leg curls
Machine leg extensions (a perennial favorite of the PT's working out of my gym, I always found they put a too much strain on the knee compared to a squat)

OK, the reason I listed all of these different exercises is on the chance that you hadn't heard of some of them. I'd suggest you check them out, and try them out with BW or a broomstick and see what feels good, Then pick a few for your leg training day and give it a try.

Good luck!

[lukamar]

Machine leg extensions (a perennial favorite of the PT's working out of my gym, I always found they put a too much strain on the knee compared to a squat)

They are the favorite of 90% of trainers as it's easy on them. Some machines, Apex is one, actually allow you to set the no weight travel distance so you don't push any weight until your knee passes 90%. That takes the major stress off the knee. The Apex repair guy showed me that and it works like a hot damn.